Descent Into Mystery
by Foxotr
Summary: Vicki Vale felt like she was missing something in her normal, mundane life. She heads to Gotham and begins her descent into mystery, romance, and Jokers. A re-imagining and retelling of Batman through Vicki's POV.
1. Chapter 1

Vicki Vale sat at her desk, staring out the large picture window and tapping a pen against her dark mahogany desk. She let out a long, frustrated sigh; blowing a stray strand of her long blonde hair out of her face. She was bored with this town, bored with her cookie-cutter life. What she really craved was some excitement, some mystery. Anything, but this. There were only so many dull photos of models she could take and definitely only one Corto Maltese.

She stared down at the copies of her latest model photo shoot. It wasn't like they were bad pictures, but they all looked the same. No matter how artistic you got, the subject matter was still the same. They were still photos of pretty people posing in various ways. There wasn't anything mysterious or exciting about them to really lure you in. If only she could find something interesting to photograph again. Maybe that would put a spark back in her increasingly mundane life. Maybe she could feel alive again.

She looked up from her desk as she heard laughter coming from across the hall. She stood up, smoothing her black knee length skirt, and walked silently across her office to her door. She opened it further and peeked out into the hallway.

"Ok, John," she called. "Enlighten me. What's so funny this time?"

John March, Vicki's tall dark and handsome assistant, stood up from his desk, still chuckling to himself. He was holding up a folded newspaper in his hand as he stood in the doorway to his own office, leaning into the frame.

"Ah, it's nothing you'd really care about, Vicks. Just some crazy bullshit story I was reading in today's Gotham Globe. You know, come to think of it, maybe you _should _read it. You need to laugh more, Vicks."

Vicki shook her head, rolling her eyes and smiling at John. He might almost be attractive if he wasn't so predictably normal. "Oh, come on. I laugh when there's something funny, but lately there just hasn't been much to laugh at."

John smiled at her, running his free hand through his slick brown hair. "Really, Vicks, you need a vacation."

Vicki nodded, pulling a strand of her hair behind her ear. "You're probably right. Now, are you going to tell me what you were reading about? I mean, really, what could _possibly_ be funny in _Gotham_?"

John grinned at her and laughed, shaking his head. "Well, this guy Knox wrote some crazy story about some kind of a giant bat flying around Gotham and knocking off crooks. I mean, come on, a _giant bat_? This guy is hilarious."

Vicki didn't laugh or smile. She crossed her arms in front of her. "A giant bat? In Gotham?"

John started chuckling again. "I know! I mean, who seriously believes this shit? I can't believe they even published this. Editor must have thought it was funny."

Vicki bit her lip in thought. This story just seemed too good, or too weird to be true. But, if it was… "Are there any pictures? Of the giant bat, I mean."

John stopped laughing and stared at Vicki in disbelief. "Pictures? Are you serious? This story is bullshit, Vicks. A photo of a giant bat in Gotham would be like having a photo of the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot even. Never going to happen because it's not real."

Vicki smiled at him warmly, laughing softly. "I guess you're right. Let me see that article so I can get a good laugh out of it."

John nodded and walked across the hall, handing her the paper. "Sure. You can keep it, actually. I'm done with it."

Vicki clutched the paper in her hand, and smiled graciously at John before turning on her heels and walking back towards her desk, calling behind her, "Thanks."

She quickly sat down at her desk and opened up her top drawer, pulling out her black plastic glasses. She put her glasses on and opened the paper eagerly. Sure enough, there was the article about a giant bat in Gotham. She found herself quickly engulfed in the article. The article went on to mention several occurrences of crooks sighting a giant bat, saying that he had fought them and stopped them. They all seemed to say he walked on two legs and was as tall as a man. The article's author, Alexander Knox, seemed to genuinely believe these stories despite the police denying all the rumors and sightings. _Could it be true?_

She read through the entire article, completely engrossed in this story, without laughing. She was absolutely enthralled by the pure mystery of it all. She was convinced that something strange was going on in Gotham and it seemed like this Knox guy really wanted to get to the bottom of it. Well, so did she. She wanted in on this.

She folded the paper gently and took off her glasses, glancing down at the photos from her most recent shoot. Just the same old boring shit. Nothing at all like what a photo of a giant vigilante bat would be like, of course.

She smiled excitedly and stood up, grasping the copy of the Gotham Globe in her hand. She grabbed her coat and threw it on in a hurry. She picked up her over-sized black back and slung it over her shoulder before she dashed out of her office in a hurry. Her mind was running a mile a minute, but she caught a glimpse of John March peering up at her from his desk.

"Hey! You ok? Vicks? Where are you going?"

She stopped and backtracked to his doorway and looked in, smiling at him. "You know, I think I'm going to take that much needed vacation now."

John stared at her, confused. "What? _Now_? To where?"

"Oh, I was thinking I might like to visit Gotham City. I hear they've got some pretty fascinating wildlife there these days."

John's jaw dropped open as he searched for words. "_What_? No. Come on, Vicks. You don't seriously _believe_ that garbage, do you? Vicks?"

"Thanks for the article. Goodbye, John." She smiled at him, patting him lightly on the cheek, and swiftly turned to walk out of the office. She couldn't even remember the last time she had felt so invigorated and full of life. She hailed a cab and got in laughing. Oh did it ever feel good to laugh!

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-**AUTHOR'S NOTE**-

- This is really just a small side project/experiment of mine. This has always been one of my favorite movies since I was 4 years old, and I met my fiance and fell in love with him while discussing and quoting this movie. Heck he even proposed to me (Jan 15, 2010) while we were watching it. If there is one movie that I know like the back of my hand and can practically quote in it's entirety it's this one.

Anyways, most of my work on here has all been with Dark Knight and writing Ledger's amazing Joker, but I thought I might like to try my hand at writing Nicholson's awesome Joker as well. The idea for this story came to me when talking to a friend and finding out she absolutely hated the character of Vicki Vale. I had always kind of liked her and for some reason identified with her on a level that I was never really able to express. I started writing this as a way to re-imagine Vicki's character and see the movie/story through her eyes while also slightly re-imagining the movie to go with her re-imagining. I wrote this almost a year ago and put it away never to think about it again. I recently found it again and thought that it at least deserved a chance to be posted and see if anything ever came of it. After all, I did work hard on it and it is my writing. However, I cannot guarantee I will ever come back to this. I would like to. Especially if I get enough positive feedback on it. But I would like to finish my Dark Knight fics before doing so. So, I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think.

Yours Truly,  
foxotr 02/28/2010


	2. Shadows in the Night  Welcome to Gotham

She arrived in Gotham early that evening. It was a dark, cloudy night in the grungy city. She kept her eyes open, looking along the streets for anything out of the ordinary, but nothing caught her eye. However, she decided that the town was probably a photographers dream. All the old buildings lining the streets with their Gothic architecture were just screaming to be photographed. Even if this whole Batman thing didn't pan out, she could probably really enjoy herself here for a while.

"This the place?" The driver's gruff voice broke her from her thoughts.

She glanced out her window. Sure enough, they were at the Gotham Towers Hotel, which was exactly where she needed to be.

"Yes," she dug into her purse, fumbling around for her wallet. When she finally found it, she pulled enough cash out to pay the driver with a nice tip to boot. "Thank you."

The driver smiled at her warmly and opened up his door, popping the trunk. "Tell you what, Miss. How's about you let me help you out with those bags of yers, eh?"

Vicki had her hand on the door handle, with the car door slightly ajar. She stopped to think about her luggage that she had in the trunk of the taxi. It certainly was a lot and she could use some help, but she wasn't so sure of how comfortable she felt with this guy.

Before she could answer, the driver was out of the car and was reaching into his trunk grabbing onto a couple of her bags. He made sure she was still in the car while he hid one of her bags underneath his spare tire in the back of the trunk. She looked like the type of lady that would certainly carry something he could get some money out of in her bags. There was bound to be something good.

"I really appreciate your help," she smiled at him warmly, gripping two of her bags that he had placed on the ground. "Is that all of them?"

The driver looked briefly into the trunk of his cab and then winked at her. He closed the trunk and grabbed hold of her other two bags. "That's all of 'em. Don't worry about it. It was my pleasure to help ya out. Wouldn't have been gentlemanly of me if I'd have made ya carry all these in by yerself, now would it?"

Vicki smiled uneasily at the man. He was being overly friendly and something about him just didn't sit right with her. She wanted nothing more than to get inside the hotel building and be rid of her unwanted cab driver friend. "No, I guess not."

He gestured towards the hotel doors. "Ladies first."

She nodded and started walking towards the glass entrance doors of the hotel. She was almost there when out of the corner of her eye she swore she saw something move in the alley. It was a shadow that appeared to have swooped down from a ledge in a blur of black. At first, she thought it might have been a bat, but it was too big to be a bat. At least not any bat she'd ever seen.

Vicki dropped her bags down to the sidewalk and turned behind her to look at the cab driver. His jaw was hanging open and his eyes were full of panic. He had dropped the bags he was carrying to the sidewalk and was backing up nervously to his cab.

"Son of a bitch… I don't believe it. Oh man. Oh shit. Gobs was right…"

She watched him open the trunk and start digging around, mumbling nervously to himself. He pulled another one of her bags out and threw it to the sidewalk. _That bastard was going to steal one of her bags._ As he shut the trunk and fumbled with his door he called out to her, his voice still full of panic.

"Take it, lady. It ain't worth it. I ain't windin' up like Johnny Gobs."

He got into his cab and floored the engine, speeding off down the dark road. _Perfect. Not one foot in the door and already she was having incredible luck. _

"Thanks for the hospitality," Vicki mumbled to herself, turning towards the alley.

The sound of her heels clicking against the pavement in the dark alley echoed off the tall buildings. Her breath came out in puffs in the cool night air as she stopped in the middle of the alley and glanced around. No signs of the shadow she had seen remained. The alley was empty and she was starting to feel cold standing there alone. She pulled her long trench coat tighter around her and walked briskly back to the entrance of the hotel, grabbing her bags.

"May I help you with your bags, Miss?"

Vicki glanced at the young bellhop and then back out the door where the rest of her luggage remained. She still felt uneasy from her ever so helpful cab driver bailing on her and screaming something about not winding up like some guy named Johnny Gobs, but she was tired and just wanted to get into her room and collapse on her bed for the night.

She smiled at the young man and nodded. "Would you please? That would be wonderful. My cab driver drove off in such a hurry he left some of my bags out on the sidewalk out front."

The young bellhop smiled back at her warmly, taking the bags she already had from her and piling them onto a cart. "Not a problem, Miss."

"Thank you," Vicki called after him. She walked over to the desk to see about getting a room.

The older gray haired gentleman behind the desk smiled at her warmly. "Welcome to Gotham Towers. What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to book a suite, please."

The old man nodded and pulled out a book, running his frail old fingers along it. When his finger stopped he peered up at her. "Yes, seems I have an opening here for a suite on the twentieth floor. It includes a bedroom, dining area, living area, kitchen, and bathroom."

Vicki smiled at him. "Sounds perfect. I'll take it."

"Splendid. How long will you be staying, Miss?"

She bit her lip, reaching into her purse to dig out her credit card and sighed. "Well, that depends on how long it takes for me to get what I came for."

The old man stared at her, confused as she placed her Visa card down on the desk. "What do you mean by that, Miss?"

Vicki smiled, extending her hand for the man to shake. "I'm Vicki Vale and I'm a photographer. I'm here in Gotham to photograph the wildlife and I'm not leaving until I get the perfect shot that I'm looking for."

The man shook her hand and took her card, handing her a form to sign. When she signed it he handed her the key to her room and grinned at her. "Well, Miss Vale, I hope you find that shot. Good luck to you and you have a pleasant night."

"Thank you," she replied as the bellhop showed up with her cart of luggage. He followed her to the elevator and to her room.

When she was finally in her room and the bellhop had placed all of her luggage on the floor, she dug in her purse again and pulled out a twenty to hand to him. She smiled warmly at him as she placed it in his sweaty palm.

"Gee, thanks, Miss!" He grinned at her, blushing.

Vicki smiled back at him. Maybe Gotham wasn't so full of assholes after all. "No, thank you."

Before closing the door behind him, the bellhop called out one last goodbye to her. "Have a good night!"

Vicki smiled and locked her door. She took off her long trench coat and placed it on top of her luggage. She flipped on a few more lights and glanced out the large floor to ceiling windows in the dining and living area. No sign of any large bats tonight.

She sighed, kicking off her heels and dropped down onto the comfy couch. _Home sweet home away from home. _It was a nice place, but she wondered just how long she'd be staying here. Maybe she was crazy to believe that story that guy Knox wrote, but if he was right… No, she was determined to get that photograph of the mysterious giant bat of Gotham. She'd start tomorrow by going down to the Gotham Globe and talking to Knox.

Vicki turned to glance out the windows once more at the dark and dreary Gotham night. "I know you're out there somewhere, whatever you are, and I'm not leaving until I find you."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE - **Ok so this is the second chapter of a project I started around the beginning of this year and haven't worked on it much because my main focus has been with my Joker/Dark Knight fanfic series, but this has always been on my mind as well because it means a lot to me. Anyways, point being I love the movie so much and know it so well that I had always wanted to do a fanfic about it and thought that doing one from Vicki Vale's POV would be fun. I was challenged by my soon to be sister in law who sees Vicki as a flat un-likable character and so with this I wanted to give a new spin on the story and try to make Vicki a likable character like I have always seen her. I know this chapter is a bit of filler, but it should be getting really good soon. Can't guarantee how long it will be until I have another update, but rest assured I am always working on this when the mood strikes me to stop working briefly on my Joker/Dark Knight stuff. Hope you enjoy this enough to read on. Thanks for reading!


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